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Coaching runs in family for Jaguars' Mike Mallory

Bruce.Lipsky@jacksonville.com Mike Mallory, the Jaguars' new special teams coordinator, answers questions last week. He earned a Super Bowl ring as an assistant with the New Orleans Saints.

For Mike Mallory, the Jaguars’ new special teams coordinator, coaching is the family business.

His father, Bill Mallory, was a head coach at four colleges — Miami (Ohio), Colorado, Northern Illinois and Indiana — and Mike Mallory grew up around his father’s programs.

“The great thing was he always had us around,” Mallory said. “Whether we were hanging around watching practice, whether we were ballboys on the sidelines when he was at the University of Colorado, or even when we were done playing, we did our grad work. All three of us were graduate assistants for him at Indiana, so we were able to keep that bond.”

Although his father was sometimes away recruiting, Mallory said, “I got to see firsthand how he affected men’s lives, certainly the excitement of gameday. Those are all things that I really was impressed with and something I wanted to be a part of as well.”

Mallory’s younger brother, Doug, is assistant head coach/defensive coordinator at Indiana, and his youngest brother, Curt, is secondary coach at Michigan.

And now Mallory’s father hangs around his son’s programs the way they once hung around his.

“He spends half the year in Bloomington, Indiana, so he gets his football fix there and goes to all those practices. He also goes to Michigan, and wherever I’m at, he will be there. He will probably be here for the preseason camp checking things out. He loves it,” Mallory said.

In the offseason, his father lives in Naples.

Mallory was an all-state high school player in Illinois and played at Michigan from 1982-85.

He was the Wolverines’ MVP in 1984 and a finalist for the Butkus Award, which is given to the nation’s best linebacker in 1985.

Still, he downplays his athletic ability.

“I was a program player,’’ Mallory said. “I played for Bo Schembechler at Michigan, and it was a right fit. I was a coach’s kid. One of those try hard, play hard, you’re surrounded by a lot of good players type of thing, but it was a great experience. I loved it.’’

He played at only 215 pounds and added, “I wasn’t very good. I wasn’t very fast, that type of thing. I probably knew the scheme and tried to anticipate.”

Mallory went right into coaching after he graduated from Michigan. He spent two years as a graduate assistant at Indiana and then made stops at Eastern Illinois, Rhode Island, Northern Illinois, Maryland, Kansas and Louisville before being hired in the NFL by the Saints in 2008.

He spent five seasons with the Saints, four as an assistant special teams coach and one as an assistant linebackers coach.

He got a Super Bowl ring in his second year with the Saints, but then he saw the team struggle last year (7-9) in the wake of the Bountygate incident when head coach Sean Payton was suspended for the season.

Mallory said he didn’t know coach Gus Bradley before being hired by the Jaguars, but he was given a good recommendation from Seattle special teams coordinator Brian Snyder.

“In the special teams circle, we all know each other, and I talked to Brian and that was relayed to Gus. One thing led to another,” Mallory said.

In Jacksonville, he starts out with a good kicker (Josh Scobee) and punter (Bryan Anger). But the coverage teams and the return game were among the league’s worst last season.

When key special teams players like Montell Owens were forced into starting roles last year, the coverage teams eroded. In the final regular-season game, Tennessee’s Darius Reynaud returned punts of 69 and 81 yards for touchdowns.

When Mallory was asked if there’s an adequate returner currently on Jaguars’ roster, he said, “It’s hard to say. I think watching tape is one thing and working with the guys one-on-one in person, I am looking forward to that opportunity in the evaluation process.”

Because a new staff will likely turn over the bottom third of the roster, Mallory will have to wait to see how the roster shakes out before knowing how his special teams unit will look.

“Gus understands the importance that special teams play. I think that’s going to be a big part of [roster] decisions is the contributions that guys can make on special teams. When I heard that when I interviewed, I was excited about that,” Mallory said.